Landlord Moreland Properties (UK) Ltd has successfully challenged a Barnet County Court ruling in which Judge Mayer held that it was not entitled to possession of a property in Long Lane, Finchley, London N3.
The company claimed that the judge had erred in finding that a statutory tenant, Dahya Dhokia, was entitled to grant a subtenancy of the premises at a time when he was not in actual possession. It had allegedly remained unaware of the sublease until it received a letter from the local authority requesting that the property be adapted to provide for a subtenant who was in need of special care.
Martin Wynne Jones, counsel for the respondent subtenants, argued that the statutory tenancy continued “until determined by court order or by notice determining the tenancy served by the statutory tenant”.
He claimed that a statutory tenancy “does not, and cannot, automatically determine on the tenant no longer residing at the property. If it did automatically determine, the landlord would have no right to demand rent.”
Allowing the appeal, and ordering the subtenants to give up possession, Sir Martin Nourse held that the judge should have found that the tenant could not grant a subtenancy on the basis that the evidence indicated that he had abandoned the property as his residence four years previously.
He said: “It would be most extraordinary if someone who had abandoned premises as his home more than four years prior to subletting it was able to get it back into possession himself, let alone to sublet it to anyone else and to deny the landlord possession of it”.
Moreland Properties (UK) Ltd v Dhokia and others Court of Appeal (Brooke LJ and Sir Martin Nourse) 21 October 2003.
Gary Pryce (instructed by Teacher Stern Selby) appeared for the appellant; Martin Wynne Jones (instructed by Saul Marine & Co) appeared for the second to fifth respondents; the first respondent did not appear and was not represented.
References: EGi Legal News 22/10/03
